No Sew (No Glue) Heart Barrettes

Okay, so maybe everyone doesn’t have crystal head pins in their stash, if not you can improvise with a sparkly pipe cleaner, or a piece of wire and some sequins or beads, or heck, sew it together with some yarn. Forget the title, it’s not important!

We made these for a few of Rebecca’s friends for Valentine’s day. I was trying to come up with something that she could make for her friends, out of materials that we had on hand. I did cut the hearts out though, and she ended up needing some help twisting the wires together, so the ‘make it herself’ part was only a little bit successful. She pushed the head pins through the hearts and barrettes, and helped with the design though. Also, since I’d started with the design constraint ‘something that a 4yo might be able to do’, they were easy enough to make a bunch without pulling my hair out. WIN!

Am I starting at the end of the story? Well, let me give you the basic instructions in case you haven’t already figured it out from the picture.

Take a heart button, a regular sized barrette, and a couple of crystal head pins or other type of wire. Put the button on top of some felt and use it as a template to cut out a larger heart shape. Stack the felt heart on some more felt and cut out a yet slightly larger heart. Stack the button and the two heart shapes, and (help your 4yo) stick the head pins down through the button holes and through the felt. Slip the pin wires down through the prongs of the barrette at the wide end, and twist the wires around the end of the barrette, making sure that the pokey ends get tucked in between the barrette and the felt heart. Ta Da!

I know, you got all that from the picture right? Did you figure out why there is one set of hearts that is a radically different color of pink? No, we didn’t run out of lovely naturally dyed wool felt. One of Rebecca’s friends is allergic to wool. 🙁 Do not pass Go, do not go to Waldorf school, do not collect $200. Do get a sparkly barrette anyway!! Very important.